Saturday, 31 October 2015

Book review: Seizing Shangri-La

In recounting the power play
that led to Sikkim’s absorption into India, the author’s bias towards the
deposed king is straightforward

Sikkim: Requiem for a Himalayan Kingdom

by Andrew Duff

Publisher: Random House India, 2015

Pages: 389

Price: Rs 599

Much of the western media and numerous
authors in the 1960s and 1970s portrayed Sikkim as an exotic Himalayan Shangri-La.
Interest in Sikkim was especially piqued after Hope Cooke, an attractive, young
American woman, romanced and married Palden Thondup Namgyal, who quickly became
Chogyal (hereditary ruler) of Sikkim. American readers, long fascinated with
royalty, found in Hope Cooke echoes of the alluring Grace Kelly, who had, in
the previous decade, married the wealthy Prince Rainier of Monaco. But while
Kelly made headlines with her high-rolling European lifestyle, Gyalmo (queen) Hope
Cooke and her Chogyal husband were caught up in the Himalayan power play that
ended with the 1975 absorption of Sikkim into the Indian union.

There have always been two versions of this
Sikkim story. The first, an idealistic and morally loaded interpretation, is
about the benevolent monarch of an idyllic mountain kingdom who was cynically undermined
and deposed by a large and powerful neighbour, India, which was actually treaty-bound
to protect his dominions. A second version, grounded in political realism, tells
of the ouster of an out-of-touch ruling elite from a privileged Lepcha-Bhutia minority
that was lording it over the ethnic-Nepali majority. Both versions are
variations of the truth.

Unquestionably, New Delhi acted
opportunistically in absorbing Sikkim. Indian leaders of that period were
guided less by considerations of morality than by the conviction that
militarily blocking a looming China required full control of Sikkim, which
controlled strategic parts of the Sino-Indian border, especially the Chumbi
Valley. Given Nepal’s reluctance, already evident during that period and even
more so now, to allow India freedom of action on the Himalayan border, India’s
absorption of Sikkim was a pragmatic act of realpolitik.

In 1984, the journalist, Sunanda Datta-Ray,
recounted the moral version of the story in his book, Smash and Grab: the Annexation of Sikkim. As the name suggests this
book, which the Indian government duly banned, portrays an unscrupulous and
heavy-handed New Delhi. Andrew Duff’s version borrows heavily from Datta-Ray,
drawing extensively on the Chogyal’s own account of events. But while Datta-Ray
had a single-minded thesis --- New Delhi’s perfidy --- Duff’s account is rather
more nuanced. It draws from wider sources, including the personal correspondence
of two Scottish women, both palace intimates, who provide revealing glimpses
into palace gossip, albeit coloured by the prejudices of the British elite of
that day. Duff has gone to some length to access diplomatic accounts of that time,
including correspondence put out by Wikileaks. But his interpretation is naive,
especially of American and Chinese conversations about India, which, during the
Nixon-Kissinger-Mao-Zhou period, reflected deep hostility towards India on
every subject, not just Sikkim.

Duff’s bias towards the Chogyal and his palace
coterie is as straightforward as his antipathy towards the democrats who
eventually took power. Scotswoman, Martha Hamilton, who describes the Chogyal
as “a dear old man, dressed in a beautiful silk brocade”, is portrayed as “a
tall, spirited, single, 28-year-old Scottish missionary”. In contrast, another
Scotswoman, Elisa-Maria Langford-Rae --- the activist wife of the democratic
leader, Kazi Llendup Dorji, who became Sikkim’s first chief minister in 1975
--- is described as “a shadowy Scottish woman who orchestrated events on behalf
of her husband, the leading politician in Sikkim who harboured a lifelong
grudge against the king”.

Even so, the intelligent reader who keeps
in mind these biases will find this book a highly readable and fast-paced
account of that crucial period when independent India consolidated its
Himalayan borders. After extending administration to the North East Frontier
Agency (NEFA) in the 1950s, the development and management of the Nepalese,
Bhutanese and Sikkimese borders was an important concern in New Delhi,
especially after the debacle of the 1962 Sino-Indian war. The author presents
not just the story of Sikkim, but usefully connects it with developments in the
other two countries, illustrating why Sikkim joined India while Nepal and
Bhutan remain independent countries.

In telling this story, the author overcomes
the disadvantage of not having been present in Sikkim during those days, bringing
to life a wide range of characters: the autocratic, out-of-touch, yet fundamentally
decent Chogyal; his plotting sister, Coocoola, who German explorer Heinrich
Harrer considered “the most beautiful woman in the world”; the young, confused
Gyalmo Hope Cooke; and an array of Indian officials, many still alive, who
played key roles in Gangtok during that time. Notwithstanding his sympathy for
the Chogyal, Duff acknowledges his alcoholism and many political blunders.

An Indian diplomat who was a key
protagonist in Gangtok through that period points out that, notwithstanding
Duff’s conviction that India did not play fair by Sikkim, the proof of the
pudding is in the eating: Sikkim is today one of India’s most developed,
progressive and integrated states and its people far happier than they were under
the Chogyal. He wonders: “Did India, the world’s biggest democracy, have any
choice but to back democratic forces in Sikkim? And ‘smash and grab’ is
certainly not an accurate description of New Delhi’s actions in Sikkim. Our
moves during that time would be far better described as ‘dither and fumble’.”

4 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Fact is India indeed smashed and grabbed an independent nation with the help of illegal Nepali immigrants who numbered more than the local Lepcha Bhutia people. The illegal Nepali immigrants of Sikkim faced expulsion, so under the garb of democratic uprising they invited India to annex this country which happened to be it's protectorate. This is how an independent nation became "a state" of a foreign country with the help of illegal immigrants from a different foreign country who were encouraged by the British to settle there against the wishes of Sikkim's indigenous people and its ruler.The huge illegal Nepali immigrant population of Bhutan tried to do something similar in that country, for which they got no help from India leading to expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Nepalese vast majority of whom settled in West Bengal and Assam.Gorkhaland agitation in West Bengal is another land grab attempt by the Nepalese who have become the majority in Darjeeling and other parts of NE India due to an open border and sparse population of local indigenous people.Annexation of Sikkim was and is illegal. Sikkim needs to get back it's independence and its monarchy needs to be restored to his rightful position. Even P.M. Morarji Desai thought annexation of Sikkim was wrong and not in India's interests.

Ironically, the anti-India proponents in Nepal keep on harping the fear of "sikkimisation' of Nepal at the hands of India,when teh main driving force of that in Sikkim were the Nepalese origin inhabitants.However, considering how rare India has acted proactively to secure its interests,the action in Sikkim is not entirely non-tenable.